The Harvest Rewritten
by ConfusedColumbia26220
Summary: So, I am rewriting every single episode of Buffy, with one slight change – Jenny Calendar killed off in Passion, season 2 episode 17 will be in every single one. Don't like it, don't read it. That simple. S1E2
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So, I am rewriting every single episode of Buffy, with one slight change – Jenny Calendar (killed off in Passion, season 2 episode 17) will be in every single one. Don't like it, don't read it. That simple. If you do like it, I would also suggest that you start out by reading 'Welcome To The Hellmouth Rewritten' before you read this. **

In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer…

Inside the mausoleum, Luke tried to bite Buffy, but burned himself on the cross hanging around her neck and jerked back. Buffy seized the opportunity and push kicked him out of the coffin. She climbed out of it and raced outside. Buffy ran to catch up with Willow, Xander and Jesse. She heard a vampire roar and a girl screaming and ran toward the sounds. Willow was on the ground, about to be bitten.

"No! Get off!" Willow struggled.

"Hey!"

The vampire looked up, and Buffy snap kicked him off of Willow. He got up and ran away. Willow was shocked by what she saw. Buffy quickly started the hunt again. Willow got up and ran after her.

Xander was being dragged away by two vampires.

Willow appeared between two gravestones. "Xander!" First Jesse, now Xander. What a night.

The vampires were distracted. Buffy took advantage of the opening and jumped in, high punching one and side kicking the other. She noticed a dry branch on a tree and broke it off. As one of the vampires got up, she plunged the stick into him.

Willow rushes over to Xander, who was still on the ground. "Xander, are you okay?"

"Man, something hit me."

"Where's Jesse?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know!" Willow worried. "They surrounded us."

Xander provided the answer, "That girl grabbed him and took off."

"Which way?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know."

Buffy stood up straight and slowly scanned the cemetery. "Jesse," she whispered.

The globe up on the stack level was spinning in the library. Giles stopped it while he lectured and made his way down to where Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Ms. Calendar were at the study table. "This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their... their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for, for man. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures."

"And vampires," Buffy added.

"Okay, this is where I have a problem. See, because we're talking about vampires. We're having a_ talk_ with vampires in it."

"Isn't that what we saw last night?" Willow asked.

"No. No, th-those weren't vampires, those were just guys in thundering need of a facial. Or maybe they had rabies. It could have been rabies. A-and that guy turning to dust? Just a trick of light."

Xander gave Buffy a look.

"That's exactly what I said the first time I saw a vampire. Well, after I was done with the screaming part," Buffy explained.

"Oh, I-I need to sit down," Willow stated.

"Willow," Ms. Calendar said. "You are sitting down."

"Oh. Good for me."

"So vampires are demons?" Xander was trying to grasp this truckload of new information.

"The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood -"

"Books, books, books. It's always books with you. The interwebs have a lot of information, as well," Ms. Calendar interrupted.

"Which is only accessible to people who know how to work the contraptions. However, I digress, as this is not the time for an argument. Back to what the _books_ said, he was a human form possessed, infected by the demon's soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding... Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return."

In the sewers, Darla and Luke were forcing Jesse into the Master's lair.

"Move!" Luke barked.

They reached the lair, which was actually what remains of a church, and Luke forced Jesse down the slope to the floor below.

The Master approached. "Is this for me?"

"An offering, Master," Luke answered.

"He's a good one! His blood is pure!" Darla stated.

The Master drew the obvious conclusion. "You've tasted it."

Darla looked down in shame.

"I'm your... faithful dog. You bring me scraps." The Master was not happy.

"I, I didn't mean it-"

"I have waited. For three score years I have waited. While you come and go I am stuck here, here in this house of..." The Master's next word is said with extreme contempt. "Worship! My ascension is almost at hand. Pray that when it comes..." He took Darla by the neck. "I'm in a better mood."

"Master, forgive me! We had more offerings, but there was trouble. A girl!"

Luke came to Darla's aid, "And there was a girl. She fought well and she knew of our breed. It is possible that she may be..."

"A Slayer!" If The Master hadn't been pissed before, he was now.

In the library, the five carried on their conversation.

"And that would be a what?" Xander asked.

"For as long as there have been vampires, there's been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a Chosen One," Giles explained.

"They love doing this part," Buffy told Xander, referring to both Giles and Ms. Calendar.

"Alright. The Slayer hunts vampires, Buffy is a Slayer, don't tell anyone. Well, I think that's all the vampire information you need." Giles was thankful that Buffy's attitude seemed to have simmered down a bit.

"Except for one thing: how do you kill them?" Xander asked.

"_You_ don't, _I_ do," Buffy answered.

"Well, Jesse's my-"

Buffy interrupted, "Jesse is _my_ responsibility. I let him get taken."

"That's not true."

Willow joined in, "If you hadn't shown up they would have taken us, too. Does anybody mind if I pass out?"

"Breathe," Ms. Calendar stated.

"Breathe," Willow repeated.

"Breathe," Buffy jumped in.

"Breathe," Willow repeated once more.

Buffy addressed both Giles and Ms. Calendar, "This big guy, Luke. He talked about an offering to the Master. Now, I don't know what or who, but if they weren't just feeding then Jesse may still be alive. I'm gonna find him."

"Uh, this may be the dumb question, but shouldn't we call the police?" Willow asked.

"And they'd believe us, of course," Giles replied.

"Well, we don't have to say vampires. We, we could just say that there's a, a bad man."

"They couldn't handle it even of they did show up," Ms. Calendar replied.

"They'd only come with guns," Buffy added.

"You have no idea where they took Jesse?" Giles asked.

"I looked around, but soon as they got clear of the graveyard, they could have just, voom!"

"They can fly?" Xander asked, amazed.

"They can drive."

"Oh." He never failed in making himself sound like a moron.

"I don't remember hearing a car," Willow said.

"I know! Let's take an enormous intuitive leap, shall we, and say they went underground." Ms. Calendar locked eyes with Giles, hoping to get kudos for using the word 'intuitive'.

"Vampires really jam on sewer systems. You can get anywhere in the entire town without catching any rays. But I didn't see any access around there."

Progress, Giles thought. He was glad it seemed Buffy was willing to drop whatever personal disliking she held for Ms. Calendar to be able to work with her. Even he knew she was hard to work with sometimes, but he didn't downright dislike her out of the blue.

"Well, there's an electrical tunnel that runs under the whole town," Xander stated.

"If we had a diagnostic of the tunnel system it might indicate a, a meeting place, it would, uh... I suppose we could go to the building commission," Giles suggested.

"We _so _don't have time," Buffy stated.

Willow thought back to an earlier occurrence, and found something useful. "Uh, guys? There may be another way."

In The Master's lair, The Master is still reeling, "A Slayer! Have you any proof?"

"Only that she fought me, and yet lives," Luke answered.

"Hmm, very nearly proof enough. I can't remember the last time that happened."

"1843. Madrid. He caught me sleeping," Luke had remembered.

"She mustn't be allowed to interfere with the Harvest!"

"I would never let that happen!"

"Don't worry about it. I believe she'll come to us. We have something she wants."

Luke smiled at Jesse.

The Master announced his logic, "If she is a Slayer, and this boy lives, she'll try to save him."

"I thought you nothing more than a meal, boy." Luke moved behind Jesse, taking his neck. "Congratulations, you've just been upgraded. To bait."

In the library, Willow had the city plans pulled up on the computer monitor. One of the few computers that lived in the library.

Buffy pointed. "There it is."

"That runs under the graveyard," Willow informed.

"I don't see any access," Xander stated.

"So, all the city plans are just, uh, open to the public?" Giles asked.

"Um, well, i-in a way. I sort of stumbled onto them when I accidentally decrypted the city council's security system," Willow answered.

"Someone's been naughty," Xander commented.

Ms. Calendar proudly chipped in, "Happened in my class. Willow _is_ one of my smartest students."

Willow blushed. "Thanks," she murmured.

"There's nothing here, this is useless!" Buffy huffed.

"I think you're being a bit hard on yourself," Giles stated.

"You're the one that told me that I wasn't prepared enough. Understatement!" She exhaled. "I thought I was on top of everything, and then that monster, Luke, came out of nowhere..." She flashed back to the fight in the mausoleum.

"What?" Ms. Calendar asked.

"He didn't come out of nowhere. He came from behind me. I was facing the entrance, he came from behind me, and he didn't follow me out. The access to the tunnels is in the mausoleum! The girl must have doubled back with Jesse after I got out! God! I am so mentally challenged!"

"So, what's the plan? We saddle up, right?" Xander asked.

"There's no 'we', okay? I'm the Slayer, and you're not."

"I knew you'd throw that back in my face."

"Xander, this is deeply dangerous."

"I'm inadequate. That's fine. I'm less than a man."

"Buffy," Willow spoke up. "Buffy, I'm not anxious to go into a dark place full of monsters. But I do want to help. I need to."

"Well, then help me. I've been researching this Harvest affair. It seems to be some sort of preordained massacre. Rivers of blood, Hell on Earth, quite charmless. I'm a bit fuzzy, however, on the details. It may be that you can wrest some information from that dread machine." Everyone else looked at Giles. He looked back at them all. His next words were general, but there was a bit of an inside joke to them for himself and Ms. Calendar. "That was a bit, um, British, wasn't it?"

"It was, Rupert," Ms. Calendar answered.

Buffy smiled. "Welcome to the New World."

Giles next addressed Willow and Ms. Calendar, "I want you to go on the 'Net. Both of you. Maybe some useful information can be pieced together that way." He was bent on computers being good for nothing.

"Oh, sure, I can do that," Willow replied. She began to type.

Ms. Calendar went off to another nearby computer.

"Then I'm outta here. If Jesse's alive, I'll bring him back." Buffy started to leave.

"Do I have to tell you to be careful?" Giles asked.

Buffy turned back, gave Giles a look, and continued out. Once outside, Buffy made strides towards a side gate. Mr. Flutie was there and stopped her.

"And where do we think we're going?"

"We?" Buffy faced him. "I... Me..."

"We're not leaving school grounds, are we?"

Buffy said the first excuse that came to mind, "No! No, I'm... just admiring the fence. You know, this is quality fence work."

"Because if we were leaving schools grounds on our second day at a new school, after getting kicked out of our old school for delinquent behavior... Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Mr. Giles..."

"What?"

"He asked me to get a book for him. Well, actually, for Ms. Calendar, because she, uh, needs it for one of her classes and, uh, the library doesn't have it. So I need to get it, uh, from the store, 'cause I have a free period, and I'm a big reader. Did it mention that in my transcripts?"

"Mr. Giles? Ms. Calendar?"

"Ask them."

Mr. Flutie swung the gate closed. "Well, maybe that's how they do things in _Britain_, they've got that royal family and all kinds of problems," He locked the gate. "But here at Sunnydale nobody leaves campus while school's in session. Are we clear?"

Buffy made one meek, last attempt, "Ms. Calendar's not British…"

Mr. Flutie stood firm. "Are we clear?"

"We're clear."

"That's the Buffy Summers I want in my school. Sensible girl with her feet on the ground!" He turned and left.

Buffy watched him go. When he'd gone a ways she crouched and leaped the fence.

Xander slipped out of the library out of boredom, since Giles hadn't had a job for him. Maybe he'd follow Buffy. Or maybe he'd just go to class.

In the library, the ladies were diligently typing away, and Giles was buried in research. The bell rang.

Willow jumped. "Oh-Oh! Gotta run, class!" She gathered her stuff and bolted out of the library.

Ms. Calendar laughed, shaking her head. "Well then." She continued scanning the monitor for a few moments. Then she glanced at the clock. "Oh, I've got class t-" Then she realized that was her 'prep' period. "Nevermind."

"Has that dreadful device given you any good information yet?" Giles asked.

"Not as of late, I'm sure it will come through, though. How about your books?"

"Well, actually…" He may have just found something. "No, nevermind."

"What was it?" Ms. Calendar asked.

"Unicorn eaters…"

Ms. Calendar laughed. "And you've got a problem with computers."

"Yes, I do, thank you very much."

"I'm going to bring a class in here someday."

Giles gave her a horrified look. "You wouldn't!"

Ms. Calendar smirked. "Watch me."

Willow and Xander were walking down the hall.

"Murder, death, disaster. What else?" Willow asked.

"Paranormal, unexplained, did you get natural disasters?"

"Earthquake, flood."

"Rain of Toads."

"Right."

"Rain of Toads! Do you think they'd have anything like that in the paper?"

"I'll put it on the computer search. If it's in there, it'll turn up. Anything that'll lead us to vampires."

"And I, in the meantime, will help by standing around like an idiot."

"Not like an idiot, just... standing. Buffy doesn't want you getting hurt."

They stopped in front of their next class.

"I don't want you getting hurt," Willow added.

"This is just too much. I mean, yesterday my life's like, 'Uh-oh, pop quiz.' Today it's 'Rain of Toads'."

"I know. And everyone else thinks it's just a normal day."

"Nobody knows. It's like we've got this big secret.

"We do. That's what a secret is, when you know something other guys don't."

"Right. Look, maybe you should get to class." Xander indicated the door.

"You mean 'we'. We should get to class."

"Yeah."

"Buffy'll be okay. Whatever's down there, I think she can handle it."

"Yeah, I do, too." He didn't.

"So do I!"

Buffy was in front of the mausoleum from before. She entered slowly, looking and listening. She scanned around. Satisfied that no one was there, she walked down the steps to the floor. She heard a rat behind her and twisted to look toward the sound. She continued and found the tunnel access. It was locked with a chain. She lifted the lock.

The same stranger from before appeared behind her, the one who had given her the cross. He exhaled.

"I don't suppose you've got a key on you?" Buffy asked.

"They really don't like me dropping in."

Buffy faced him. "Why not?"

"They really don't like me."

"How could that possibly be?"

" I knew you'd figure out this entryway sooner or later. Actually, I thought it was gonna be a _little_ sooner."

"Sorry you had to wait." She exhaled. "Okay. Look, if you're gonna be popping up with this Cryptic Wise Man act on a regular basis, can you at least tell me your name?"

"Angel."

"Angel. It's a pretty name." She turned to the tunnel entrance.

"Don't... go down there."

Buffy turned back. "Deal with my going."

"You shouldn't be putting yourself at risk. Tonight is the Harvest. Unless you can prevent it, the Master walks."

"Well, if this Harvest thing is such a suckfest, why don't _you _stop it?"

"'Cause I'm afraid."

She looked at him for a moment and then spun around quickly, kicking open the doors to the tunnel. She turned back to him.

"They'll be expecting you."

"I've got a friend down there. Or at least a potential friend. Do you know what it's like to have a friend?"

He lowered his eyes as a look of sadness filled them.

"That wasn't supposed to be a stumper."

They looked at each other a moment longer.

"When you hit the tunnels head east towards the school. That's where you're likely to find them."

"You gonna wish me luck?"

Angel said nothing. They looked at each other for another moment, then Buffy turned and headed into the tunnels. He watched her go. "Good luck!" he whispered.

"Hey, England!" Ms. Calendar called.

"Yes?"

Ms. Calendar started laughing. "Didn't expect you to answer to that."


	2. Chapter 2

Inside the tunnels, Buffy came down a flight of stairs. She looked around. She heard rats. One crawled across her shoes. She slowly started down the tunnels. There were lights at regular intervals. When she reached an intersection, Xander surprised her from behind.

"Did you see anything?"

Buffy exhaled in fright. "Xander, what are you doing here?"

"Something stupid. I followed you."

"Well, you-"

Xander interrupted, "I couldn't just sit at home and do nothing."

"I understand. Now, go away!"

"No!"

"Xander, you're gonna have to."

"Look, Jesse's my bud, okay? If I can help him out, that's what I gotta do."

Buffy considered, then nodded her head for him to follow. She started down the tunnel again.

"Besides, it's this or chem class."

Later, they reached the top of some stairs. Xander was refreshing his knowledge on how to kill vampires, "Okay, so, crosses, garlic, stake through the heart."

"That'll get it done."

"Cool! Of course, I don't actually have any of those things."

Buffy handed him a cross. "Good thinking."

"Well, the part of my brain that would tell me to bring that stuff is still busy telling me not to come down here. I have this, though." Xander turned on a flashlight.

"Turn that off!"

He quickly turned it off. "Okay! Okay! So, what else?"

"What else what?"

"For vampire slayage."

"Oh, fire, beheading, sunlight, holy water, the usual."

"You've done some beheading in your time?" Scary, much? But he was joking – partially.

"Oh, yeah. There was this time I was pinned down by this guy that played left tackle for varsity... Well, at least he used to before he was a vampire... Anyway, he had this really, really thick neck, and all I had was a little, little Exact-O knife..."

Xander laughed nervously.

"You're not loving this story," Buffy stated.

"No, actually, I find it oddly comforting."

In the library, Giles was alone for once. Ms. Calendar had a class to teach. He was reading from a volume. "'For they will gather and be gathered. From the Vessel pours life.' P... Pours life..." He turned the page back to the picture of Satan feeding power to a man. "'On the night of the crescent moon, the first past the solstice it will come...' Of course. That's tonight!"

In Ms. Calendar's computer class, Cordelia was struggling with her computer programming assignment. "No! It's supposed to find the syntax and match it. Or wait..."

"Are we going to the Bronze tonight?" Harmony, one of Cordelia's friends, asked.

"No, we're going to the other cool place in Sunnydale," Cordelia answered with frustrated sarcasm.

Harmony looked confused.

"Of course we're going to the Bronze. Friday night? No cover? But you should have been there last night. 'Cause I ran into Buffy..."

Willow overheard the conversation.

"...and can she be any weirder? She attacked me! Do you believe it?"

Harmony sighed. "I think we did this part wrong."

"Why do we have to devise these programs, isn't that what nerds are for?" She dropped her voice to a whisper, indicating to Willow, "What'd she do?"

Harmony looked at Willow's screen. She was surfing a newspaper archive website. "Uh, she's doing something else," she told Cordelia.

"Okay, and then pattern run, right? Or go to end? That's it!" Cordelia was trying to conquer the problem the computer was giving her.

"Maybe!" Harmony encouraged.

"So anyway, I come outta the bathroom, and she comes running at me. Screaming! With a stick! 'I'm gonna kill you! I'm gonna kill you!' I swear!" Cordelia completely exaggerated the encounter with Buffy from the night before.

"Who?" a male student asked.

"Buffy!"

"The new girl?" Harmony asked.

"What's her deal?" the student asked.

"Well, she's crazed."

"Did you hear about her old school?" Harmony asked.

Cordelia and the boy both shook their heads.

"Booted."

"Well, I exhibit no surprise," Cordelia scoffed.

"Why was she kicked out?" the boy asked.

"Uh, because she's a psycho loony!"

Willow interjected, "No, she's not."

"What?" Cordelia was appalled that she dare speak to her, let alone interrupt her conversation.

Willow turned to them. "She's not a psycho. You don't even know her."

"Excuse me? Who gave you permission to exist?"

Willow turned away, eyes down.

"Do I horn in on your private discussions? No. Why? Because you're boring."

Willow got up and went to get her printouts.

"Okay, I think the program's done." Harmony thought she figured it out.

"Finally the nightmare ends! Okay, so how do we save it?"

Willow would passive-aggressively get her payback. "Deliver," she answered.

"Deliver? Where's that?" Cordelia searched the keyboard. "Oh!" She hit the 'Del' key, and her program disappeared. She stared at the screen in wide-eyed, open-mouthed horror.

Ms. Calendar was walking by, checking everyone's progress. She paused behind Cordelia. She pulled a pencil out from behind her ear and a small notepad out of her pocket. "Wasted an entire period, have you? You've earned a luxurious trip to thirty minutes afterschool detention." She scribbled something on the paper and tore it out. She handed it to Cordelia. "Tomorrow. After school. Be here."

"That – That's not fair! I had my work, Willow, she –"

"Didn't let you cheat off her this time. Good for her. Save your excuses, I'm not buying them." She continued her rounds of the classroom.

Buffy and Xander were still in the tunnels.

"They're close," Buffy stated.

"How can you tell?"

"No more rats."

Xander turned on his flashlight and spotted Jesse on the ground. "Jesse!"

"Oh, no!"

Jesse reacted, jumping up.

"J-J-Jesse!" Xander couldn't believe it. Their friend was found!

"Xander!"

The two embraced.

"Jesse, man, are you okay?"

"I am not okay, on an _epic _scale."

Buffy shone the light on the shackles around Jesse's ankle.

"We gotta get outta here!" Jesse said.

"It's cool, Buffy's a superhero."

"Hold on…" Buffy broke the shackles.

"Do you think anyone heard that?" Xander asked.

They saw shadows moving on the walls and started to run down the tunnel. Vampires came around the corner. Xander, Buffy and Jesse book it to another part of the tunnel.

"They knew you were gonna come. They said that I... I was the bait." Jesse informed.

"Oh, great, now you tell us." Xander was sure he wasn't the only one who found that to be bad timing.

They rounded a corner and were met by vampires.

"Oops!" Buffy.

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" By the sound of it, Jesse did not like that at all.

"Do you know another way out?" Buffy asked.

"I dunno. Maybe. C'mon!"

They ran again. At another intersection they saw glowing eyes to their right.

"Wait, wait. They brought me through here, there, there should be a way up. I hope!" Jesse lead them into a chamber.

"I don't think this is the way out!" Buffy cried.

"We can't fight our way back through those things. What do we do?" Xander asked.

"I got an idea." Jesse took on the form of a vampire. "You can die!"


	3. Chapter 3

Xander and Buffy were in the chamber with vamp Jesse.

"Jesse, man. I'm sorry." Xander couldn't believe how stupid he'd been.

"Sorry? I feel good, Xander! I feel strong! I'm connected, man, to everything!"

Buffy began struggling with the door, trying to close it.

"I, I can hear the worms in the earth!"

"That's a plus." Xander was still crestfallen.

"I know what the Master wants. I'll serve his purpose. That means you die. And I feed."

Buffy looked back at them. "Xander, the cross!"

Xander held the cross up to Jesse's face. Jesse stepped back and growled. "Jesse, man. We're buds, don't you remember?"

"You're like a shadow to me now."

"Then get outta my face."

Jesse knocked Xander's arm to the side, making him hit the wall. He jumped to the other side of the room, facing Xander. Buffy grabbed him from behind and throws him out of the chamber into the advancing vampires, knocking them all down, and went back to trying to close the door. "Help me!" she requested of Xander.

Xander jumped up to help, and together they got it to move. They closed it on a vampire's arm. The vampire puleds its arm back out of the door, and Buffy slammed it shut and closed the latch. The vampires began pounding on the door.

"We need to get out of here!"

"There is no out of here!" Xander used his flashlight to look around and spotted a grate in the ceiling. "Up there!"

Buffy leaped on top of a barrel and began to pry the grate open. The vampires had started to bend in a corner of the door. They twisted it and pushed it in further. Buffy got the grate open. "Go!"

She helped Xander crawl up into a ventilation duct. A vampire started to struggle through the bent corner of the door. He reached in and pulls the latch open as Xander got through the grate. Buffy followed him quickly as the first vampire entered the chamber. He followed them through the grate into the duct. Xander and Buffy crawled like mad. Xander found a ladder up to a manhole and started climbing the rungs. Buffy followed. The vampire was right behind them. Xander pushed open the manhole cover and climbed out into daylight. He turned to help Buffy out. The vampire grabbed her ankle and tried to pull her back down.

"Xander, pull!"

Xander pulled on her, and the vampire's hand was exposed to the sunlight and burned. The vampire let go, and they tumbled backward to the ground.

Later, in the Master's lair, The Master, was, once again, not pleased. "She escaped? She walks free when I should be drinking her heart's blood right now? Careless..."

A vampire by the name of Colin tried to explain, "Master, we had her trapped!"

"Oh, are you going to make excuses?"

Colin remained silent.

"You are all weak. It has been too long since you have faced the Slayer. Huh. It is no matter to me. She will not stop the Harvest. Just means there'll be someone worth killing... when I reach the surface. Is Luke ready?"

"He waits," Colin answered.

"It's time. Bring him to me."

Colin turned to go get look.

"Ah, Colin... "

Colin turned back.

"You failed me. Tell me you're sorry."

"I'm sorry!"

"There. That wasn't so bad, was it? Hold on..." He stabbed his finger into Colin's face. "You've got something in your eye."

Giles was doing research in the library. He heard someone come in. "Buffy?"

"It's just us," Willow stated.

Ms. Calendar was with her. "So there's no word?"

"Ah, not as yet, no," Giles answered.

"Well, I-I'm sure they're... great," Willow stated.

"Did you find anything of interest?" Giles asked openly.

"I think, maybe... I surfed through the old newspapers around the time of that big earthquake back in '37? And for several months before there were a rash of murders." Willow handed Giles her printouts.

"She spent class time well." Not only was Ms. Calendar being sarcastic, she was also being serious.

"Great! I-I mean, well, not, not 'great' in a good way, uh, um, uh, go on?" Giles really wished Ms. Calendar didn't have to be such a large help. Well, of course, he liked the help, it was much needed. She just drove him all sorts of crazy. He knew she knew it.

"Well, they sound like the kind you were looking for." Ms. Calendar had swiped the papers from Giles. "Throats, blood..."

Willow looked squeamish.

"It's all coming together. I rather wish it weren't," Giles stated.

"That bad?" Ms. Calendar asked.

Giles nodded. "That bad."

In the Master's lair, Luke approached the Master and knelt before him. The Master offered his hand. Luke took it and kissed it. He released it and the Master turned it over to offer the underside of his wrist. Darla was watching and smiled. Luke opened the cuff of the Master's sleeve and pulled it back. He took his hand again, sunk his fangs into the wrist above it and drank the blood. He released the hand, and the Master pulled it back.

"My blood is your blood. My soul is your soul," The Master stated.

"My body is your instrument."

The Master stepped down to Luke and began to draw a three-pointed star on Luke's forehead with the blood still flowing from his wrist.

"On this... most hallowed night... we are as one. Luke is the Vessel!"

Darla's smile widened.

"Every soul he takes will feed me. And their souls will grant me the strength to free myself. Tonight I shall walk the Earth, and the stars themselves will hide!"

In the library, Willow was looking at one of Giles' volumes. She heard the door open and looked up to see Xander and Buffy come in.

"Did you find Jesse?" Ms. Calendar asked, peering from over the top of her laptop.

"Yeah," Xander answered.

"Was he dead?" Willow asked.

"Worse." Buffy sat at the end of the table. "I'm sorry, Willow. We were too late. And they were waiting for us."

"At least you two are okay," Willow replied glumly.

Xander violently kicked a waste basket. Buffy was startled, along with Ms. Calendar. "I don't like vampires. I'm gonna take a stand and say they're not good."

Buffy turned to Giles and glanced at Ms. Calendar. "So, Giles! Ms. Calendar! Got anything that can make this day any worse?"

Giles walked over to the whiteboard and put down his pen. "How about the end of the world?"

Ms. Calendar looked over anxiously.

"Knew I could count on you," Buffy stated.

"This is what we know. Some sixty years ago, a very old, very powerful vampire came to this shore, not just to feed."

"He came 'cause this town's a mystical who's it."

"Yes. The Spanish who first settled here called it 'Boca del Infierno'. Roughly translated, 'Hellmouth'. It's a sort of, um, portal between this reality and the next. This vampire hopes to open it."

"Bring the demons back."

"End of the world," Xander stated.

"But he blew it! Or, I mean, there was an earthquake that swallowed half the town, and him, too," Willow offered.

"You see-"

"Opening dimensional portals is a tricky business." Ms. Calendar pitched in, walking over to them. She had to feel useful, somehow.

"Thank you, Ms. Calendar. Took the words right out of my mouth." He knew there was going to be some teasing phrase from her after that. "Odds are he got himself stuck, rather like a, uh, cork in a bottle."

"And this Harvest thing is to get him out," Xander was beginning to piece everything together.

"It comes once in a century, on this night. The Master can draw power from one of his minions while it feeds. Enough power to break free and open the portal. The minion is called the Vessel, and he bears this symbol." He drew a three-pointed star on the whiteboard.

"So, I dust anyone sporting that symbol, and no Harvest," Buffy stated.

"Simply put, yes," Ms. Calendar answered.

"Any idea where this little get-together is being held?" Buffy asked.

"There, there are a number of possibilities," Giles said.

"They're goin' to the Bronze," Ms. Calendar answered.

"Are you sure?" Willow asked.

Xander agreed with Ms. Calendar's idea, "Come on. All those tasty young morsels all over the place? Anyway, that's where Jesse's gonna be, trust me."

Giles grabbed his coat and started out of the library. The others began to follow. "Then we should get there. The sun will be down before long."

"I gotta make a stop. Won't take long," Buffy announced.

"What for?" Ms. Calendar asked.

"Supplies."

The sun was slowly, but surely, setting. Buffy was in her room. She went to her closet and pulled out a heavy, black jacket. Her mother walked into the room.

"Buffy?"

"Mom!"

"You're going out?"

"I have to." Buffy put on her jacket.

"I didn't hear you come in last night."

"I was really quiet."

"It's happening again, isn't it? I got a call from your new principal. Says you missed some classes today?"

"I was running an errand."

"We haven't finished unpacking, and I'm getting calls from the principal."

"Mom, I promise, it is _not_ gonna be like before. But I _have_ to go."

"No."

"Mom?"

"The tapes all say I should get used to saying it. No."

"This is really, really important."

"I know. If you don't go out it'll be the end of the world." Little did she know, it would be. "Everything is life or death when you're a sixteen-year-old girl."

"Look, I don't have time to talk about this..."

"Buffy, you've got all the time in the world, you're not going anywhere. Now, if you wanna stay up here and sulk, I won't hold it against you. But if you wanna come down, I'll make us some dinner."

Buffy's mother left the room, pulling the door and closing it behind her. Buffy couldn't believe what just happened. She leaned against the closet door, taking a deep breath and exhaled. Then she turned and opened the closet again, pulling out a large chest. It had a flat box in it full of her stuff. She lifted out the box to reveal what was underneath. Stakes, crosses, garlic, bottles of holy water. She pulled a bunch out and put them in her sports bag. She took a particularly sharp stake and concealed it in her jacket sleeve. She closed the chest, zipped the bag closed and went over to her door to make sure her mother wasn't nearby. Then she grabbed the bag, slid it out of the window onto the roof and climbed out after it.

The sun was sinking even further. At the Bronze, the doorman was checking ID's. Inside, at the upper level, Cordelia and her friends found a table.

"Senior boys are the only way to go. Guys from our grade, forget about it, they're children. Y'know?" Cordelia and her friends sat. " Like Jesse. Did you see him last night, following me around like a little puppy dog." They all giggled. "You just wanna put him to sleep. But senior boys, hmm, they have mystery. They have... What's the word I'm searching for? Cars! I just am not the type to settle. Y'know? It's like when I go shopping. I have to have the most expensive thing. Not because it's expensive, but because it costs more."

"You know, I-" One of her friends tried talking.

"Hello, Miss Motormouth, can I get a sentence finished? Oh, I love this song! Come on!"

Cordelia and her gang made their way to the dance floor and started to move to the sound of 'Wearing Me Down' by the Dashboard Prophets

._"You fight the good fight / You fight the good war / You fight to be right / You fight to restore / Why should I believe a word that you say / It was just a game that you don't wanna play / And I say / It's wearing me down, I realize / It's all in my head now, now, and I realize / It's not what you've done / As much as what you've said / As what you've said / As what you've said / As what you've said"_

Jesse watched Cordelia from the side. He walked onto the dance floor. The song was over, and Cordelia stopped dancing. She started to leave, but Jesse was standing in front of her, fingers on his lips.

"Uh, what do you want?"

Another song, 'Ballad For Dead Friends', started. Jesse lowered his hand, took hers and lead her back onto the dance floor.

"Hey! Hello! Caveman brain! What are you doing?" Cordelia would not be seen with that freak.

"Shut up!" He began to dance with her.

"Well, just one dance." Cordelia caved. Only because he wasn't that bad of a dancer.

They danced close.

Outside the Bronze. where the doorman was counting money, Darla came out of the shadows in a bouncy walk. She turned around and walked backward while other vampires came into the light behind her. She turned back again and approached the doorman. They all sported their vampire faces.

_"How are you feelin'? / Do you feel okay? / 'Cause I don't!"_


	4. Chapter 4

The vampires headed in.

The doorman stopped them. "Need ID." He looked up. "Hey! Nobody gets inside until I get some sorta-"

Luke growled in the doorman's face. "Get inside.

The vampires pushed the doorman inside with them. The last of them shut the door and stood guard.

_ "How are you feelin'? / Do you feel okay? / 'Cause I don't!"_

One of the vampires made his way to the upper level. Another one found the main power switch and shut it off. The people started complaining and wondering what happened.

Luke got up on the stage. "Ladies and Gentlemen! There is no cause for alarm. Actually, there is cause for alarm. It just won't do any good."

The crowd screamed as they caught glimpse of Luke's face. He laughed.

"I thought there wasn't any band tonight," Cordelia stated. She looked at Jesse next to her. His face was in vampire from, and she inhaled in fright.

"This is a glorious night! It is also the last one any of you shall ever see. Bring me the first." Luke was still on the stage.

A vampire brought the doorman to Luke.

The doorman was freaked, but trying to keep cool. "What do you guys want, man, huh? You want money? Man, what's wrong with your faces?" 

Luke grabbed him by the throat. He wrapped his other arm around the doorman's head. "Watch me, people. Fear is like an elixir. It's almost like blood." He bit the doorman and fed on him. The doorman screamed.

The Master in his lair raised his head as he felt the first of the souls that would be taken for him.

Luke dropped the doorman's body. "Next!"

The team arrived outside. Buffy tried the door.

"It's locked!"

"We're too late!" Giles had failed. The world was going to end. Everyone was going to die.

"Well I didn't know I was gonna get grounded!" Buffy.

"Can you break it down?" Xander asked.

"No, not that thing. Um..." Buffy thought. "You guys try the back entrance, and I'll find my own way."

"Right. Come on." The world was _not_ going to end. Not on Ms. Calendar's watch.

"Um, wait! Guys! Here!" Buffy handed Willow her bag. "You get the exit cleared and the people out. That's all! Don't go Wild Bunch on me."

"Uh, see you inside, then." Maybe Giles hadn't completely failed, after all.

Ms. Calendar, Giles, Xander and Willow ran around to the back. Willow tried the door. It was locked, too. 

"No joy!"

"We've gotta get in there before Jesse does something stupider than usual." Xander.

"You listen to me! Jesse is dead! You have to remember that when you see him, you're not looking at your friend. You're looking at the thing that killed him."

Even Ms. Calendar flinched at his tone.

In his lair, the Master tested his confines.

In the Bronze, Luke fed on a girl.

"Almost free!" The Master was triumphant.

Luke was still feeding on the girl.

"Give me moooooore!" The Master roared.

Luke finished the girl off and dropped her body.

Meanwhile, in another part of the Bronze, Darla and Jesse were arguing, Cordelia caught in the middle. Darla wanted to take Cordelia to Luke.

"This one's mine!" Jesse claimed territory.

"They're all for the Master." Darla pulled on Cordelia.

Jesse let go. "I don't get one?" That wasn't fair.

Buffy broke an upper window and crawled inside.

"I feel the Master's strength growing!" Luke was ecstatic.

Buffy saw Luke on the stage.

"I feel him rising. Every soul brings him closer! I need another!"

Buffy told herself what she saw, "The Vessel."

The vampire on the upper level saw Buffy and growled. She looked over at him.

"Tonight is his ascension. Tonight will be history at its end! Yours is a glorious sacrifice! Degradation most holy." No one in the crowd dared to stir at Luke's words. "What? No volunteers?"

Darla brought Cordelia to him. "Here's a pretty one."

Cordelia screamed when she saw Luke up close. He caressed her face. He was about to bite her when Buffy kicked the vampire down from above them. Luke watched him land with a thud. Buffy approached the railing.

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you in the middle of something?"

"You!" Luke hissed.

"You didn't think I'd miss this. Did you?"

"I hoped you'd come."

"Be right down!" She stepped away from the railing and executed a roundoff to get down. She landed on a pool table. A vampire attacked from her right. Buffy did a front walkover off of the table, grabbing a pool cue on the way. When she landed she thrusted it into her attacker and let go. He began to fall and burst into ashes. "Okay, Vessel boy," she addressed Luke. She removed her jacket. "You want blood?"

Luke fell for it. "I want yours!" He released Cordelia. "Only yours!"

Buffy shrugged. "Works for me."

She ran and cartwheeled up onto the stage, and immediately launched into a full spinning hook kick. Luke staggered into a pile of chairs. Buffy assumed a fighting position. Luke gots up and growled. He came at her and swung, but she ducked the punch and came up behind him. He tried a backhand punch, but she blocked him, held onto his arm and gave him three roundhouse kicks to his stomach before he shaked loose. She took her stake and lunged at him. He blocked the lunge, knocking the stake from her grip. He lifted her up and threw her into a pile of boxes.

At the back of the Bronze, Ms. Calendar, Giles, Willow and Xander finally broke in.

"Hurry!" Giles cried urgently.

Xander ran in to see what was going on. He saw Buffy was down. Shortly after, she got up, so Xander turned his attention to the crowd. "C'mon! Let's go! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon! C'mon!" He rushed others out in a low voice.

Giles and Ms. Calendar were pulling people out, as well. "Hurry up! Come on! Through this door! Come on! This way!" And any other forms of 'get out' they thought of were urgently whispered.

In the main room of the Bronze, Buffy spun around and landed a backhand punch on Luke's face, knocking him into another pile of stuff. He was dazed. Buffy turned to see a vampire grab Xander. She grabbed a cymbal from a drum set and threw it at the vampire like a Frisbee. Xander saw it coming and ducked. The cymbal decapitated the vampire.

"Head's up!" Xander managed to make a joke out of his lucky escape.

Buffy couldn't resist a chuckle. Luke grabbed her from behind.

Cordelia was on the floor with Jesse above her. She struggled and he grabbed her arms. 

"Hold still! You're not making this easy!"

Xander came up behind him, stake in hand. "Jesse, man! Don't make me do it."

Jesse turned to look up at Xander. "Buddy!"

Buffy was being held tightly from behind by Luke.

"I always wanted to kill a Slayer!" Luke was confident.

Willow joined Giles and Ms. Calendar in guiding people out. 

"One at a time!" Giles ordered. "Quickly! Quickly!" He crossed to the other side of the room in front of some stairs. Darla was standing on the steps above him. "We're going to have to open the front as well!"

Darla leapt onto him from behind, knocking him to the floor.

Xander was still trying to talk sense into his newly vamped friend. "Jesse! I know there's still a part of you in there."

Jesse jumped up. "Okay... Let's deal with this. Jesse was an excruciating loser who couldn't get a date with anyone in the sighted community! Look at me. I'm a new man!"

Cordelia had long since gotten away.

Luke still had his hold on Buffy. "Master! Taste of this... and be free!" He roared and moved in to bite Buffy.

She sensed his proximity and snapped her head back to land a headbutt on his face, knocking him off of her and back to the wall. She turned to him, winded. "How'd it taste?"

Giles and Darla were struggling on the floor.

Ms. Calendar approached them while taking out a jar of holy water from Buffy's bag. It had transfered from Willow to herself in all the excitement. "Get off of him!"

Darla was distracted and looked up. Ms. Calendar threw the holy water at her. It burned her face and steamed. She got up and ran from the club, screaming.

Jesse grabbed Xander by the jacket and lifted him around against a wall. Xander had the stake pointed at Jesse's chest.

"Ooo! Alright. Put me out of my misery. You don't have the guts," Jesse taunted.

A fleeing patron bumped into Jesse, impaling him on the stake. Xander let go of the stake, and Jesse began to fall. He turned to ashes before he even hit the floor. Two vampires grabbed Xander.

Buffy grabbed a microphone stand and held it like a javelin.

"You forget, metal can't hurt me." Luke would always have the upper hand.

"There's something you forgot about, too. Sunrise!" Buffy retorted. She threw the stand at the window behind Luke. He ducked, and it broke the window behind him. A bright light poured in through it. Buffy spied the stake she had dropped on the stage and picked it up. Luke got up and shielded his face with his hands, expecting to be burned. He stopped when he realized it was only a bright lamp. Buffy lunged at him from behind and jammed the stake home. "It's in about nine hours, moron!"

Luke began to stagger off of the stage.

The Master was testing the strength of his confines once more.

Luke continued to stagger.

The Master tested more.

Luke fell from the stage and exploded into ash.

The Master felt Luke's death and fell to his knees. "Noooooooo! Noooooooo!"

She stared at Luke's ashes. The two vampires still had Xander. She lifted her gaze to meet theirs. The vampires panicked and ran.

Outside, the vampires ran past Angel who was standing behind some crates stacked against a wall. He watched them run, then looked back the other way. "She did it! I'll be damned!" He walked away.

Buffy hopped from the stage down onto the floor.

Ms. Calendar, Giles, and Willow met her.

"I take it it's over," Giles stated.

"Did we win?" Willow asked.

"Well, we averted the Apocalypse. I give us points for that," Buffy answered.

Xander made his way over to them. "One thing's for sure: nothing's ever gonna be the same."

Ms. Calendar and Giles shared a look. Buffy and Willow saw that look and shared a look of their own. Xander looked at everyone looking and wondered what he missed.

The next Monday at Sunnydale High, everything appeared to be normal. Buffy was walking along when she overheard Cordelia talking to a friend. "Well, I heard it was rival gangs. You know, fighting for turf? But all I can tell you is they were an ugly way of looking. And Buffy, like, knew them! Which is just too weird. I mean, I don't even remember that much, but I'm telling you, it was a freak show!"

"Oh, I wish I'd been there!" her friend replied.

"You should have been there. It was so creepy..."

Cordelia and her friend walked off.

Buffy met Xander. "What exactly were you expecting?"

"I don't know, something. I mean, the dead rose. We should at least have an assembly."

They ran into Giles and Willow, and the four of them continued to walk.

"People have a tendency to rationalize what they can and forget what they can't," Giles told Xander.

"Believe me, I've seen it happen," Buffy added.

"Well, I'll never forget it, none of it," Willow annoucned.

"Good! Next time you'll be prepared."

Everyone looked at Giles.

"Next time?" Xander asked.

"Next time is why?" Willow added.

"We've prevented the Master from freeing himself and opening the Mouth of Hell. That's not to say he's going to stop trying. I'd say the fun is just beginning."

"More vampires?" Willow asked.

The group stopped as Ms. Calendar approached. "Not just vampires," she answered.

"The next threat we face may be something quite different," Giles added.

"I can hardly wait!" Buffy wasn't sure if she was being serious of if she were joking.

"We're at the center of a mystical convergence here. We may, in fact, stand between the Earth and its total destruction," Ms. Calendar stated.

"Well, I gotta look on the bright side. Maybe I can still get kicked out of school!" That was definite sarcasm on Buffy's end.

The three students continued to class. Giles and Ms. Calendar stayed behind and watched them go.

The students carried on their conversation, loud enough for Giles and Ms. Calendar to hear.

"Oh, yeah, that's a plan. 'Cause lots of schools aren't on Hellmouths," Xander pointed out.

"Maybe you could blow something up," Willow suggested. "They're really strict about that."

"I was thinking of a more subtle approach, y'know, like excessive not studying."

Giles shook his head and looked at Ms. Calendar. "The Earth is doomed!" 

Ms. Calendar laughed. "Hope not. You're welcome, by the way."

Giles gave her a confused look.

"I saved your butt the other night." She smirked.

"Yes! R-Right. O-of course. Th-Thank you." Giles was sure he was blushing.

"Anyway." She winked. "I've got class." She turned and walked off.

Giles watched her until she was out of sight. He turned and started towards the library. "Oh yes," he muttered to himself. "Doomed indeed."


End file.
